The Tarot Podcast with T. Susan Chang

Episode 41: How to do a Decan Walk

The grand finale! of our series on decans + tarot, just in time for Spring Equinox on March 20th. Here are my answers to ALL your burning questions: What is a decan walk? Why do we do them? And – most important of all: How do I start my own?
Includes loads of examples from current practitioners of the modern decan walk – including your host! Let me know how you’re walking this year! (Write me via the contact form at thetarotpodcast.com).
 
Must-have Decan Resources!
2026-27 decan ingress chart
Pick up the Tarot Podcast official Decan Notebook!
Join the Tarot Podcast as a Soothsayer-level patron for my “Dreaming the Decans” webinar and a free decan notebook on your 1-month anniversary!
Patreon bonus post on decanic dignity for paid Patreon members
36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot(Amazon link if you must!)
Tarot Correspondences: Ancient Secrets for Everyday Readers 
Dreaming the Decans book (also in paperback)
Dreaming the Decans webinar (yours free with Soothsayer-level membership!)
End credits music: “Time Trades,” by Jeffrey Lewis

Episode 40: Decan Deep Dive, with Mary K. Greer

It’s week 2 of our three-week series on decans!  Mary Greer and I are back to explore the ins and outs of decanic influence on four specific cards: the 4 of Cups, the 5 of Wands, the 6 of Swords, and the 9 of Pentacles. Join us as we unpack the Lords of Luxury, Strife, Science, and Gain—revealing their astrological, Kabbalistic, elemental, and numerological layers.
This week, we also have a Patreon bonus video where Mary and I discuss decanic dignity! and how it stacks up in a few special cards. For access, you can sign up at patreon.com/thetarotpodcast.
If you’d like to look closer at the visuals and graphics we discuss in the episode, there are three ways to do that:
the episode page on Podbean, our podcast-hosting service
The episode page on Patreon
the video version on YouTube
Also: stay tuned for next week’s solo show, whose topic will be <drumroll>… How to Do a Decan Walk!
 
Mary K. Greer is an independent scholar, writer, teacher, and professional tarot consultant, known for her innovative teaching techniques. With over 56 years tarot experience, she is the author of 12 books on tarot and on magic, has a master’s degree in English literature, and taught tarot in colleges and universities for 12 years.
If you’d like to study with Mary in-person, you can register for her yearly Omega Institute workshops in July:
Tarot Magic: July 17-19, a weekend with Barbara Moore, Nancy Antenucci, Charles Harrington, and Mary. https://www.eomega.org/workshops/tarot-magic
Wisdom of the Tarot - a July 19-24 five-day intensive with Mary, deck creator Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, and Carolyn Cushing.  https://www.eomega.org/workshops/wisdom-of-the-tarot
Also relevant to this episode:
Pick up the Tarot Podcast Official Decan Notebook!
Join the Tarot Podcast as a Soothsayer-level patron for my “dreaming the Decans” webinar and a free decan notebook on your 1-month anniversary!
36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot  (Amazon link if you must!)
Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for the Inward Journey
Tarot Correspondences: Ancient Secrets for Everyday Readers 
4 Stories: An Elemental Approach to the Tarot (2025)(Amazon link if you must!)
Dreaming the Decans (2024)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Become a Tarot Podcast member! patreon.com/thetarotpodcast
Shop for Tarot Podcast MERCH! & cool stuff made by your host! etsy.com/shop/tarotista
Find trusted tarot readers and explore books and classes!thetarotpodcast.com
Continue your tarot journey with The Living Tarot book and/or The Living Tarot online class  (discount for class available if you purchase the book!)
😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Episode 39: Decan Basics for Tarot Readers, with Mary K. Greer

This episode is the first of a three-part series on decans, as we count down to the spring equinox.  The legendary Mary K. Greer is in the house! for an overview conversation on the astrological structure of decans, and how they matter for tarot.   
In next week’s episode, Mary and I will look specifically at four cards and their relationship with the decans. The third episode in this series, right before the equinox, will be a solo show on decan walks: what they are, and my take on how to do one.
The graphics we refer to in this episode are included below, if you scroll past the show notes, and are also available on Patreon. If you prefer, you can also head on over to YouTube, for the fully illustrated visual version of the show.
Mary K. Greer is an independent scholar, writer, teacher, and professional tarot consultant, known for her innovative teaching techniques. With over 56 years tarot experience, she is the author of 12 books on tarot and on magic, has a master’s degree in English literature, and taught tarot in colleges and universities for 12 years.
Her 1984 book Tarot for Your Self revolutionized the practice of tarot, being the first book to both describe how to read for oneself, and use tarot as a self-help, personal development, and creativity tool. As an author and teacher she emphasizes breaking all the rules regarding methods of learning and using the tarot to find what truly works for you. As a tarot reader, she thinks of herself as a ‘midwife of the soul,’ favoring techniques that are interactive, transformational and empowering. 
If you’d like to study with Mary in-person, you can register for her yearly Omega Institute workshops in July:
• Tarot Magic: July 17-19, a weekend with Barbara Moore, Nancy Antenucci, Charles Harrington, and Mary Greer. https://www.eomega.org/workshops/tarot-magic• Wisdom of the Tarot - a July 19-24 five-day intensive with Mary Greer, deck creator Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, and Carolyn Cushing, who carries on the tarot teachings of Rachel Pollack. (link to come, or contact eomega.org for further info.)
Mentioned in this episode:
36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot (Amazon link if you must!)
Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for the Inward Journey
Tarot Correspondences: Ancient Secrets for Everyday Readers 
Fortune’s Wheelhouse esoteric tarot podcast with Mel Meleen and Susie Chang.
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• Become a Tarot Podcast member! patreon.com/thetarotpodcast• Shop for Tarot Podcast MERCH! & cool stuff made by your host! etsy.com/shop/tarotista• Find trusted tarot readers and explore books and classes!thetarotpodcast.com• Continue your tarot journey with The Living Tarot book   and/or The Living Tarot online class (discount for class available if you purchase the book!)
😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊
You can view the graphics for this episode on Podbean, or on Patreon.
 
 

Episode 38: How Can Tarot Help Me in a Crisis? with Theresa Reed, the Tarot Lady

The fabulous Theresa Reed is back on the show! to talk about how your cards can help you in a crisis. Tarot is a matchless resource for those moments of acute agony that arrive uninvited in our lives; even when you feel you’re at rock-bottom, the cards can help you feel seen and chart a course to a place of more ease and stability.
If you’re in need of a crisis tarot reading from someone other than yourself, you can find a kind, trustworthy, reputable diviner on the Tarot Podcast’s list of recommended readers.
Theresa Reed (aka “The Tarot Lady”) has been a Tarot card reader and astrologer for 40 years. She’s the author of multiple best-selling and award-winning books, including The Tarot Coloring Book, Astrology For Real Life, and The Cards You’re Dealt. She’s a featured writer for The Old Farmer’s Almanac, where she writes about moon phases, zodiac elements, astrocartography, and more. You can find her at https://thetarotlady.com and on Instagram as @thetarotlady. 
Mentioned in this episode:
The Cards You’re Dealt: How to Deal When Life Gets Real
The World’s Simplest Problem-Solution Spread (ep. 09 of The Tarot Podcast)
 
Become a Tarot Podcast member! patreon.com/thetarotpodcast
Shop for Tarot Podcast MERCH! & cool stuff made by your host! etsy.com/shop/tarotista
Sign up for readings and explore books and classes!thetarotpodcast.com
Continue your tarot journey with The Living Tarot book and/or The Living Tarot online class (discount for class available if you purchase the book!)
😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Episode 37: Shuffling Tarot Cards

Tarot cards are GIANT compared to regular playing cards.  How the heck do you shuffle them?! This week, the Tarot Podcast has a quick explainer episode for all your shuffling needs.
If you enjoyed this show and would like loads more tips on how to read tarot, check out my book, The Living Tarot, available wherever books are sold.  Or, consider The Living Tarot online class! (discount for class available if you purchase the book – just email me.)
What are your shuffling rituals—and how did you come up with them? Write to me on the Tarot Podcast Discord server (if you’re a Patreon member - to sign up and support the podcast, visit patreon.com/thetarotpodcast). Or you can reach me through the contact form at thetarotpodcast.com.
 
Mentioned in this episode:
YouTube version of the episode (so you can watch the shuffling videos!)
Episode 25: Reversed Cards
Benebell Wen’s DIY fanning powder video
 
For further exploration...
Become a Tarot Podcast member! patreon.com/thetarotpodcast
Shop for Tarot Podcast MERCH! & cool stuff made by your host! etsy.com/shop/tarotista
Sign up for readings and explore books and classes!thetarotpodcast.com
😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Episode 36: Robert M. Place + the Alchemical Tarot

The Tarot Podcast has TWO different interviews! with two different deck creators this week.
Here in Episode 36, we chat with Robert Place, the creator of the best-selling Alchemical Tarot. Bob drew the Alchemical Tarot in the style of 17th century alchemical engravings, and it became an instant favorite in the tarot community on publication in 1995. Along with Bob’s books, this deck is a crash course in Western esotericism, and we had a lot of fun talking about the wondrous synchronicities that accompanied his creation of this deck.
On Patreon, we have a written interview with Catrin Welz-Stein, the creator of the Tarot of Mystical Moments, a stunning and surreal woman-centered deck. At the end, there’s a one-card reading from me. You can check it out by visiting  patreon.com/thetarotpodcast and signing up to support the show. (Thank you!)
Featured in the show art this week: The King of Coins, 5 of Wands and Lady of Cups (equivalent to the Page of Cups in RWS-based decks) from the Alchemical Tarot.
Robert M. Place is the designer and illustrator of over twenty Tarot and oracle decks: including the internationally acclaimed and award-winning Alchemical Tarot, The Angels Tarot, The Marziano Tarot, the award-winning The Tarot of the Saints, The Buddha Tarot, The Vampire Tarot, The Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery, The Tarot of the Alchemical Magnum Opus, The Alchemical Tarot of Marseille, The Hermes Playing Card Oracle, An Ukiyo-e Lenormand (based on Japanese culture), The Raziel Tarot and The Burning Serpent Oracle (for both of which he collaborated with Tarot diva Rachel Pollack). His newest work, The First Occult Tarot, is a deck and book based on the descriptions written in 1781 by the Comte de Mellet, the first occult author to describe a Tarot deck.
He is the author of The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination, which Booklist has said, “may be the best book ever written on that deck of cards decorated with mysterious images called the Tarot.” He is the author of Astrology and Divination, Magic and Alchemy, Shamanism, Alchemy and the Tarot, and The Tarot, Magic, Alchemy, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism.
 
Pick up a copy of the Alchemical Tarot
Check out Bob’s website
The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination [book]
The Tarot, Magic, Alchemy, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism [book]
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Become a Tarot Podcast member!
Shop for cool stuff made by your host!
Sign up for readings and explore books and classes!
Watch the episode on YouTube!
  😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Episode 35: The 8 of Wands in Real Life

Like a spring-loaded arrow, the 8 of Wands speeds through the world’s networks and pathways to land at your doorstep! The fast-talking (and morally ambiguous) 8 of Wands is known also as the Lord of Swiftness; when you draw it, look out for the following themes:
Mail/packages
Travel (esp. by air)/ being ready to go
SURPRISE!
Storms/electricity
Acceleration/going viral
Bright ideas/news
Mercurial phenomena
For my brief intro to decans, see episode 06: https://youtu.be/Z3cAUavJBjQ
To share your stories about the 9 of Wands for the next Tarot in Real Life segment - please join as a Patreon supporter of the Tarot Podcast!You can also write in to the show at thetarotpodcast.com/about, using the contact form at the bottom of the page.
Shop for 8 of Wands talisman tags and keychains! (& other cool stuff made by your host!) 
Grab your copy of 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot!
Become a Tarot Podcast member! 
Sign up for readings and explore books and classes!
Continue your tarot journey with The Living Tarot book and/or The Living Tarot online class (discount for class available if you purchase the book!)
😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊

Episode 34: Can I Use Tarot in a Magic Spell? with Judika Illes

As tarot readers, we specialize in divination—but what about magic?  Magic and divination are two sides of the same coin—but in this week’s episode we bring them together. How we can use the symbolic language of tarot to create a magic spell? Spoiler alert: it’s easier than you think.
My guest is Judika Illes, who has written so many books devoted to magic spells, spirits, and witchcraft. My favorite is the best-selling Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells, which is off my bookshelf more often than it’s on it, that’s how much I use it. Judika is also a teacher, a reader, an editor, and a practitioner of the very arts she writes about. So gather up your witchy herbs, give your cards a shuffle, and settle in as we search for answers to the question: Can I Use Tarot in a Magic Spell?
Judika Illes is a lifelong lover, student, and practitioner of the magical arts. She is the author of numerous books devoted to magic spells, spirits, witchcraft, and saints, including the best-sellers Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells and Encyclopedia of Spirits, as well as the creator of two card decks: Magic Spells Oracle and Protection Spells. Her other books include Pure Magic: A Complete Course in Spellcasting, Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Witches: A Compendium, and Daily Magic, a perpetual calendar of spells, rituals, and feasts. A certified aromatherapist, Judika has been a professional tarot card reader since 1988.  She teaches about spell-casting and other topics in the US and internationally, live and virtually.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJudikaIlles Instagram: @judikailles
Books mentioned in the episode:
Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells
Pure Magic
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Become a Tarot Podcast member! patreon.com/thetarotpodcast
Shop for Tarot Podcast MERCH! & cool stuff made by your host! etsy.com/shop/tarotista
Sign up for readings and explore books and classes!thetarotpodcast.com

Episode 33: Five Questions with the Motherpeace Tarot creators

The Motherpeace Tarot (familiarly known as “you know, the round deck” in the tarot community) is a foundational document of the modern tarot era. First self-published in 1981, the Motherpeace revolutionized the world of tarot decks. Its creators, Vicki Noble and Karen Vogel, set out to dismantle the patriarchal underpinnings of traditional tarot with cards that honored indigenous, pre-historic, and matriarchal cultures.
In today’s conversation, Motherpeace’s creators share a glimpse of the psychic foment of 1970’s Berkeley, California. They tell the story of how two feminist academics found the Goddess, and sought to express and uphold her presence by changing the practice of divination from the ground up.
In the reading we did at the end of the show, we drew the "Shaman of Wands" (equivalent to the King of Wands in Rider Waite Smith-type decks). Here is the image, for your reference.
 
Pick up a copy of the Motherpeace Tarot: 
motherpeace.com
 
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Become a Tarot Podcast member! com/thetarotpodcast
Shop for Tarot Podcast MERCH! & cool stuff made by your host! etsy.com/shop/tarotista
Sign up for readings and explore books and classes!thetarotpodcast.com
😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊
 
 
 😊 And...don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and share!! 😊
Vicki Noble is a feminist healer and wisdom teacher, co-creator of Motherpeace and author of numerous books, including Shakti Woman and The Double Goddess. For decades she has traveled and taught internationally; her books are translated and published in various languages. Retired from teaching as a graduate professor in two Women’s Spirituality Masters Programs in California, she teaches regularly in Europe. At home she works as a professional astrologer and healer, adapting Tibetan Buddhist Dakini practices for her Goddess students and holding private intensives in Santa Cruz, California.
Karen Vogel, co-creator of Motherpeace, is widely known as as a tarot reader, teacher and writer as well as an extraordinary artist. She is the author of The Motherpeace Tarot Guidebook (1995), the novel Coyote Tails (2007), and the essays “Love of the Goddess” (Foremothers of the Womens Spirituality Movement ed. Miriam Robbins Dexter and Vicki Noble 2015) and “Female Shamanism, Goddess Cultures, and Psychedelics” (ReVision, winter 2003). The worldwide success of the Motherpeace Deck (currently over 500,000 in print) has afforded her the time to develop as an artist and sculptor of wood and stone as well as continue her exploration of the intermountain and far west. She has a degree in anthropology and a background in women’s studies, art and shamanism.
 
 

Episode 32: The 7 of Wands in Real Life

In this episode, we examine how the 7 of Wands shows up in the lives of regular folks—like you and me.
The 7 of Wands explodes onto the scene with the individualistic quest energy we will come to associate with Sevens. Challenging and courageous, the 7 of Wands is known as the Lord of Valor. When you draw it, look out for the following themes:
Courage/Standing Up for Yourself
Perseverance
Exertion/Exercise
Hardship/Fighting
Horses! or Going places
Inspiration
Literal 7’s/Counting to 7
For my brief intro to decans, see episode 06: 2 of Wands + intro to decans.
To share your stories about the 8 of Wands for the next Tarot in Real Life segment - please join as a Patreon supporter of the Tarot Podcast!You can also write in to the show at thetarotpodcast.com/about, using the contact form at the bottom of the page.
 ________________________________
Become a Tarot Podcast member! patreon.com/thetarotpodcast
Shop for Tarot Podcast MERCH! & cool stuff made by your host! etsy.com/shop/tarotista
Sign up for readings and explore books and classes!thetarotpodcast.com
Continue your tarot journey with The Living Tarot book and/or The Living Tarot online class (discount for class available if you purchase the book!)